Kumano I Ke Ala

We are committed to solving the problem of the lack of food sovereignty. 

Our proposed solution is to build a farm that combines traditional Hawaiian farming with modern organic farming, housing, cultural education, and job readiness training. 

Native Hawaiian history shows that our solution would positively change lives if it was scaled to other communities by creating a template for a community that provides sovereign, healthy food while teaching a solid work ethic and critical thinking skills. The output of this template includes sustainable, low carbon food sovereignty, revenue through produce, dairy, meat, and organic fertilizer sales, provided housing, vocational training and certification, low cost of living, a community center for empowering youth through cultural ethics, and focus on producers of food in a culturally and environmentally appropriate farm.

Food sovereignty is lacking in Hawaii. Approximately 16% of households in Hawaii are food insecure, compared to the national average of 14%. Over 35% of Native Hawaiian households are in this situation. The problem in Hawaii is just a small sampling of the 24.6% of people globally who experience food insecurity.

Affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate foods needs to be available. We will produce vegetables and traditional Hawaiian kalo, operate an organic piggery and egg farm, providing free food for our participants and local sale as well.

Farmers are undervalued. We empower farmers by providing training and education for our participants, vesting them with skills they can use for their lifetime and pass on to future generations.

Farmers and consumers need to work together.  Our participants are youth from our own community.  Their families provide the input and feedback necessary for the success of our food.

Food needs to be produced without threats to nature. Our farm will eradicate invasive plant species, maintain waterways for native flora and fauna, and provide an organic, non-industrial food source.

Cultural development is stunted by modern food sources. Our program reconnects youth to the land and its importance for Native Hawaiians and all people.

Our solution is grounded in cultural education. Ethics,values, and traditions of our culture are instilled in young people through a relationship with natural resources. An education in traditional farming cannot be done without nurturing this relationship.

Our participants invest their time and effort into providing food for their community.  Knowing that their own families will consume what they produce gives the youth a vested interest in the success of the project.

Food sovereignty will multiply through training.  We build farmers who are self-sustaining and also job-ready, able to spread farming to other communities.

A self-sufficient food ecosystem is created.  Youth receive training and are paid to work, their harvest goes to their families and to the local market, the community becomes the source of feedback as well as revenue, feedback and revenue goes into the growth of food sovereignty, the local economy, and farm support.

Training and education will be saved in video form and made available to program participants and for public use as an educational resource and to be used as a template for food sovereignty solutions across the globe.

Our target population is Native Hawaiians. Our native population are at high risk of the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse and detachment from our culture.  By starting with young Native Hawaiians we can steer them in the right direction before western culture takes a strong hold on their decision making.

We gain an understanding of their needs as well as their families needs by working closely with them every day. By doing this they are raised in an environment that builds trust and instills the core values and critical thinking skills that they need.

By creating a center of food production with housing and paid jobs as a source of cultural education we continue the tradition of our people living in a close community who can depend on each other for thriving socially, culturally, and economically. By reconnecting our community with our native values we create an avenue for the youth to see that alcohol and drug abuse do not have to be a part of life. These are the byproducts of food sovereignty that we value as high as food sovereignty itself.

The problem we choose to solve directly involves the future of native people and their health as affected by access to healthy food. Our solution is native-led, applied locally, and scalable across the globe. Technology in the form of video recording and global availability provides a perpetual educational resource for anyone to access.

Our solution blends cultural tradition and technology to address food sovereignty, create jobs and training, bolster local economies, build a relationship between people and the earth, create low cost communities, and instill cultural values and critical thinking skills.

Our solution is unique because it integrates cultural re-connection with food sovereignty.  Food sovereignty is not just about a food source and its sustainability.  It is a vehicle for social and cultural change. We have the best interest of our community, especially our at-risk youth, at the core.

Our solution will apply video and global video access via YouTube as a virtual library and template for global use.

YouTube is already a globally used source of information and education.

Our solution will have an impact on food insecurity by creating a center for culturally appropriate, healthy, affordable food that is produced in tandem with nature as part of an organic farming and cultural education resource that produces self sufficient farmers with job-readiness skills.

We serve 600 per year.  In one year we will service 800 people. In five years, we will serve 1000 people.

Our goal within the next year is to have our farm fully operational with housing for our participants. 

The barrier for our project is clearing land to begin farming and development.

We plan to address the cost of clearing the land by working with local companies and foundations to fund our project and put in as many work hours as possible.

2 full time.

2 part time.

3 contractors

We have been operating a farm for five years, we are made up of Native Hawaiians in educational, construction, and activism backgrounds.

We raise money through grants and by selling our produce locally and nationally.

We need funding for our project.  COVID-19 has made funding difficult this year.

We hope to bring our solution to the rest of the globe as it can be used to help reconnect any native people to their cultures and values while helping to counter food insecurity.

We would like to partner with any organization that works for the betterment of native people and food sovereignty.